2016 In Context: Donald Trump's Best - And Worst - Moments in Public Service

Gil Troy, professor of history at McGill University, is the author of The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s, published by St. Martin’s Press. His next book will update Arthur Hertzberg’s The Zionist Idea. Follow on Twitter @GilTroy.

Click HERE for more installments of 2016 In Context: Gil Troy's commentary on the closing days of the election.

Three
weeks from today, Americans finally will have a chance to vote for president of
the United States -- hundreds of other offices on ballots across the country.
As a presidential historian who has written histories of presidential
campaigning, of various presidents, of First Ladies, including Hillary Clinton
when she was in that symbolic role, and, most recently, of the Clintons and the
1990s in The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s, every day until Election Day I will post
an article putting this election in historical context, trying to explain this
wild and wacky race using history as our guide. So here it goes, with
hashtag #2016incontext

Having looked back
at the 1990s, listing the ten best and ten worst Clinton moments in public
service, let's look at Hillary Clinton's rival, Donald Trump through a similar
lens.

TRUMP'S BEST
MOMENTS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

1. In 1986, after
years of delays and cost overruns, Donald Trump stepped in and promised torebuild Wollman skating rink in Central Park.
Trump embarrassed city officials and New York's sclerotic bureaucracy by
coming inunder budgetand
in less time than expected.2.3.4. 5.6.7.8.9.10.Yes, nothing else!
He has no real resume in public service, never having run for office before.

TRUMP'S WORST
MOMENTS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

1. In 2015 and
2016, facing an electorate that is far more diverse than the one he was born into,
Donald Trump nevertheless makes a series of statements that offended various
groups, fueling a nasty, divisive presidential campaign.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10. You get the
point.... (note the one advantage here -- no experience in public service, no
harm done til now!)